Real World

by Natsuo Kirino

Goodreads Synopsis:

In a crowded residential suburb on the outskirts of Tokyo, four teenage girls indifferently wade their way through a hot, smoggy summer and endless “cram school” sessions meant to ensure entry into good colleges. There’s Toshi, the dependable one; Terauchi, the great student; Yuzan, the sad one, grieving over the death of her mother—and trying to hide her sexual orientation from her friends; and Kirarin, the sweet one, whose late nights and reckless behavior remain a secret from those around her. When Toshi’s next-door neighbor is found brutally murdered, the girls suspect the killer is the neighbor’s son, a high school boy they nickname Worm. But when he flees, taking Toshi’s bike and cell phone with him, the four girls get caught up in a tempest of dangers—dangers they never could have even imagined—that rises from within them as well as from the world around them.

Psychologically intricate and astute, dark and unflinching, Real World is a searing, eye-opening portrait of teenage life in Japan unlike any we have seen before.

My Rating:

☆☆

Dates Read: April 11-18, 2023

Initial Publication Date: January 2003

Translation Published: July 2008

Author Origin: Japan (Ishikawa)

Tone (via NovelistPlus): Bleak, Dramatic

Writing Style (via NovelistPlus): Gritty

Major Characters:

Toshi
Terauchi
Yuzan
Kirarin
"Worm"

Personal Notes:

In short, I didn’t like this one that much. Writing-wise, it definitely read more like an amateur YA novel than one for adults - very shallow and angsty - and much of the plot didn’t make much sense to me, mostly because the motivations behind the characters’ actions were confusing (and that’s even after considering that the characters are teenagers) or absent altogether. I’m honestly surprised that this one was written after Out, because it was just so much worse in quality. Perhaps this was a translation issue...?

It was also surprisingly sexual for a book about teenagers, and in my opinion, unrealistically so. And I swear, I'm not trying to be the modesty police here! If sexuality was going to be such a big theme, perhaps Kirino should have aged up her characters to be college students, or taken out some of the scenes she wrote into the book, because the adult situations these kids got into felt very out of place and far-fetched to me.

This novel was described as a Feminist Noir, too, but didn’t feel much like one. It felt whiny, and muddled, and not very Noir at all, especially compared to Out. I really tried not to compare the two while I read, and even then I still found myself disappointed. It didn't seem very feminist, either, given all the misogyny and the sexual harassment/assault. I'm starting to think these two are recurring themes in Kirino's work, and I don't think I'll be reading her debut, Grotesque, after having finished this one.

I did appreciate the reference to Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale, though.

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